ABBA were actually very good in concert. Even their harshest critics couldn't question their musicality. They usually got attacked for being 'too clinical' and the rather stunted stage dialogue. It's not so easy to get your personality across when performing in a language that isn't your native tongue. Yes, the mature subject matter of their songs. Three of the group members were already in their late 20's when they won Eurovision and Agnetha had just turned 24. Bjorn and Agnetha were married with a young child. Benny and Frida already had children from previous relationships in the 1960's.
His analysis was pretty detaild,punctual and most of his points really interesting and precise. Abba's songs were deceptively simple but really very complicated.There were too many things that were going on within an Abba song than what was seemingly obvious.Even after so many years of listening some may still discover plenty of astonishing little details that were soothing under the surface.Abba is one music phenomenon.
I wonder if Brian Connolly bought his outfit for the cover of Sweet Fanny Adams - also released in April 1974 - in the same London shop? ABBA's costume designer went there to get his textiles for their stage and TV shows.
As an older woman I've come to appreciate Björn's lyrics together with the music more and more. They got more and more interesting until The Visitors album.
Abba records sounded expensive in a way that most British pop music didn't at the time. Abba productions sounded like Fortnam and Mason as opposed to the Pound Shop British pop music back then. It goes some way into explaining their songs' longevity.
Giles said that "Waterloo" was the only glam rock song they recorded and nothing like this sounded this kind of genre in their later discography which ain't really accurate.2nd and 3rd album did have such stuff.(i.e.'So Long"/'Watch Out"/"King Kong Song") .He also said that before Abba's 'Waterloo' entry, ESC was boring as usual and thgat after 'Waterloo" nothing changed the constest for the next 10-15 years..But of course it changed cause its musicscape went a bit more colourful,uptempo and less boring.
After '82-'86/early '87 Abba was a kinda shameful,embarassing non-acceptable brand.But from the very late '80s (around the Stock/Aitken/waterman's trend) Abba's absence had started to be visible.Bjorn Again's arousing "underground success" were a fine proof of a desired past nostalgia until things led to Erasure the 2 Aussie Abba flavoured movies the Gold era,Mamma mias,Voyage era.Today their legacy is cemented and their reputation is crowned with the solid glory they deserved and the acknowledged class they had carried.And there's still nobody to touch them in their field.
Does the book mention the legendary Australian TV host/music impresario Ian 'Molly' Meldrum, on the subject of how/why Abba were huge first in that country? In fact does Mark and David know who Molly is? - if they don't they should. Founded and hosted Countdown - the Aussie sort-of Top Of The Pops program in the 70s-80s - and had a huge influence on lots of music careers or access to the Australian market for international acts. Anyhow - didn't he come over and do an interview with Abba early on, and this played a role in breaking Abba in Australia? No doubt Molly would have played a part Aussie Abbamania.
Molly's interference with Abba resulted the re-introducing of these Swedes to the Brits,... for good.In an interview to an Aussie journalist (around 2013 i think) Benny sent a very beautiful wholehearted sincere 'thank you" video to Molly.Molly was rather unsuspicious when he was presented that video message from Benny on air and suddenly got very moved seemed to lost his words for some secs and got kinda wet eyed.
I was 16/17 in 1974, None of my male friends watched the Eurovision Song Contest. We liked Pink Floyd, Deep Purple and Zeppelin. Abba was a group my wife and her friends secretly liked. They had to pretend to like the bands the boys liked. .
Talk Talk had their quite slow version of The Day Before you Came, of course. ABBA allowed us teenage girls to shriek again, thank god. No more prog rock. I am running to look at their 1974 Eurovision appearance
One of the producers has said they've held talks with Australia AND the USA. So I'm sure there will be an ABBA Arena in the US one day, Las Vegas perhaps.
I can see it being done in Vegas for sure, not sure about NYC, there's talk of Singapore and Australia also, being an Aussie I don't think we have enough population or tourism for it to sustain the prolonged period it would need.
This is too much, OK, I confess! I once took three members of Fugazi to see Bjorn Again, in Australia (at their insistence, Ian MacKaye not included). From memory it may have been Brendan Canty chanting most vociferously for Dancing Queen pre encore.
The guest in this video said something along the lines of 'Chiquitita' being in some way copied from 'Fernando'. Aside from both being singles recorded by ABBA and both titles being somebody's name, I just don't hear it. They are no more alike than any other two ABBA singles are alike.
His view of Eurovision now compared to then is actually opposite. People could laugh at how ridiculous the badly written but extremely distinctive tunes were in the 70s . Whereas now every country comes out with uniformly banal garbage that even Simon Cowell would approve of .
ABBA died off as punk and new wave were making them unfashionable. They peaked and pulled the plug none too soon to preserve their history. Costello, Glenn Matlock, and many more will name check them for their production and piano.
@@marcbolan1818 I was talking about the UK scene, which was more where it all happened for ABBA. The term 'new wave' seemed to have a different meaning in the states to what it did in the UK, where it really meant the new wave of punk.
Got it, the states outside of pockets were a bit behind as you know. We also were not big into classifications as Glam never really was a label in the U.S. either (as an example).
@@marcbolan1818 Speaking of the U.S., I get the impression that artists might be really popular in one state but virtually unknown in another. Obviously everything is much more concentrated in the UK, which probably lends itself to labels being used to describe a certain musical movement. The example you gave of Glam Rock is a good one. As was mentioned in the video, ABBA's songs don't seem to be associated with a particular time. That's because their music is the definition of timeless. I think that as long as people listen to pop music, then people will listen to ABBA, as I don't think anyone has ever done it better.
ABBA were actually very good in concert. Even their harshest critics couldn't question their musicality. They usually got attacked for being 'too clinical' and the rather stunted stage dialogue. It's not so easy to get your personality across when performing in a language that isn't your native tongue. Yes, the mature subject matter of their songs. Three of the group members were already in their late 20's when they won Eurovision and Agnetha had just turned 24. Bjorn and Agnetha were married with a young child. Benny and Frida already had children from previous relationships in the 1960's.
His analysis was pretty detaild,punctual and most of his points really interesting and precise.
Abba's songs were deceptively simple but really very complicated.There were too many things that were going on within an Abba song than what was seemingly obvious.Even after so many years of listening some may still discover plenty of astonishing little details that were soothing under the surface.Abba is one music phenomenon.
The blue top Agnetha wore for Eurovision justified the introduction of colour television on it's own.
I wonder if Brian Connolly bought his outfit for the cover of Sweet Fanny Adams - also released in April 1974 - in the same London shop? ABBA's costume designer went there to get his textiles for their stage and TV shows.
..'there's nothing that happens on an Abba single that doesn't happen on a purpose"...'it was built to last"....well stated.
As an older woman I've come to appreciate Björn's lyrics together with the music more and more. They got more and more interesting until The Visitors album.
Abba records sounded expensive in a way that most British pop music didn't at the time. Abba productions sounded like Fortnam and Mason as opposed to the Pound Shop British pop music back then. It goes some way into explaining their songs' longevity.
Give them credit where it's due.Those were very well done recordings...They even wore down a critical schmuck like me
Giles said that "Waterloo" was the only glam rock song they recorded and nothing like this sounded this kind of genre in their later discography which ain't really accurate.2nd and 3rd album did have such stuff.(i.e.'So Long"/'Watch Out"/"King Kong Song") .He also said that before Abba's 'Waterloo' entry, ESC was boring as usual and thgat after 'Waterloo" nothing changed the constest for the next 10-15 years..But of course it changed cause its musicscape went a bit more colourful,uptempo and less boring.
Really interesting... but you cannot ignore the impact of Mamma Mia the Musical and the films...
and like the beatles produced their best album as their last album. The Visitors is a masterpiece on every level.
Lost in Music was a fabulous book, l'm sure this will be just as good.
After '82-'86/early '87 Abba was a kinda shameful,embarassing non-acceptable brand.But from the very late '80s (around the Stock/Aitken/waterman's trend) Abba's absence had started to be visible.Bjorn Again's arousing "underground success" were a fine proof of a desired past nostalgia until things led to Erasure the 2 Aussie Abba flavoured movies the Gold era,Mamma mias,Voyage era.Today their legacy is cemented and their reputation is crowned with the solid glory they deserved and the acknowledged class they had carried.And there's still nobody to touch them in their field.
Abba was hard to escape in Australia, which was no fun for a Rock Snob like myself. Still, I will read this book.
Vitamin ABBA
Does the book mention the legendary Australian TV host/music impresario Ian 'Molly' Meldrum, on the subject of how/why Abba were huge first in that country? In fact does Mark and David know who Molly is? - if they don't they should. Founded and hosted Countdown - the Aussie sort-of Top Of The Pops program in the 70s-80s - and had a huge influence on lots of music careers or access to the Australian market for international acts. Anyhow - didn't he come over and do an interview with Abba early on, and this played a role in breaking Abba in Australia? No doubt Molly would have played a part Aussie Abbamania.
Molly's interference with Abba resulted the re-introducing of these Swedes to the Brits,... for good.In an interview to an Aussie journalist (around 2013 i think) Benny sent a very beautiful wholehearted sincere 'thank you" video to Molly.Molly was rather unsuspicious when he was presented that video message from Benny on air and suddenly got very moved seemed to lost his words for some secs and got kinda wet eyed.
I was 16/17 in 1974, None of my male friends watched the Eurovision Song Contest. We liked Pink Floyd, Deep Purple and Zeppelin. Abba was a group my wife and her friends secretly liked. They had to pretend to like the bands the boys liked. .
Talk Talk had their quite slow version of The Day Before you Came, of course. ABBA allowed us teenage girls to shriek again, thank god. No more prog rock. I am running to look at their 1974 Eurovision appearance
Blancmange.
I wish Voyage would travel to other places like the US.
One of the producers has said they've held talks with Australia AND the USA. So I'm sure there will be an ABBA Arena in the US one day, Las Vegas perhaps.
@@pcch7831 There has been some talks about NYC
I can see it being done in Vegas for sure, not sure about NYC, there's talk of Singapore and Australia also, being an Aussie I don't think we have enough population or tourism for it to sustain the prolonged period it would need.
This is too much, OK, I confess! I once took three members of Fugazi to see Bjorn Again, in Australia (at their insistence, Ian MacKaye not included). From memory it may have been Brendan Canty chanting most vociferously for Dancing Queen pre encore.
He looks a bit like Bjorn. Or is it Benny?
The guest in this video said something along the lines of 'Chiquitita' being in some way copied from 'Fernando'. Aside from both being singles recorded by ABBA and both titles being somebody's name, I just don't hear it. They are no more alike than any other two ABBA singles are alike.
His view of Eurovision now compared to then is actually opposite. People could laugh at how ridiculous the badly written but extremely distinctive tunes were in the 70s . Whereas now every country comes out with uniformly banal garbage that even Simon Cowell would approve of .
True. 100%
Ironically Waterloo is their worst ever single IMHO
ABBA died off as punk and new wave were making them unfashionable. They peaked and pulled the plug none too soon to preserve their history. Costello, Glenn Matlock, and many more will name check them for their production and piano.
Punk and new wave were pretty much done by the end of 1980; ABBA didn't call it a day until the end of 1982.
@ New Wave was full on in the states in '82.
@@marcbolan1818 I was talking about the UK scene, which was more where it all happened for ABBA. The term 'new wave' seemed to have a different meaning in the states to what it did in the UK, where it really meant the new wave of punk.
Got it, the states outside of pockets were a bit behind as you know. We also were not big into classifications as Glam never really was a label in the U.S. either (as an example).
@@marcbolan1818 Speaking of the U.S., I get the impression that artists might be really popular in one state but virtually unknown in another. Obviously everything is much more concentrated in the UK, which probably lends itself to labels being used to describe a certain musical movement. The example you gave of Glam Rock is a good one.
As was mentioned in the video, ABBA's songs don't seem to be associated with a particular time. That's because their music is the definition of timeless. I think that as long as people listen to pop music, then people will listen to ABBA, as I don't think anyone has ever done it better.